In the light of the day

Well, I finally made it to Venezuela and there is so much to write about! I'll start with the process of getting here.  Praise God for his provision through support raising this summer! He provided 100% of my support two days before my departure.  I am so thankful for each of you and how you have partnered with me to reach students in Venezuela with the gospel.

My team (I and 6 others) left for Venezuela on Monday September 27.  It was a long day of travelling and we finally arrived in Valencia at our new home at 4am! It was so exciting landing in Caracas, the capital city,  at night and seeing the lights sprinkled across the hills.  

I woke up the next morning at 7:30am disoriented and hungry.  I was sure I had at least slept until noon but when I asked my roommate for the time she confirmed that we had indeed only slept for 3 hours.  We spent the morning cleaning and unpacking until we met up with the guys on our team to get some breakfast.  We walked to  the bakery and had our first experience of ordering food in Spanish.  Everything since then has been a whirlwind of new experiences, challenges, and memories.  

Here are some of my first impressions of Venezuela:

-It's beautiful! Valencia, the city where I'll be living and working, is in a valley so there are large green hills everywhere you look.  Everything seems so bright; there's lots of color everywhere.  Women, young and old, love to dress in bright colors.  

-The people are amazing! I have felt welcomed from the moment we stepped off the airplane and I am continually blown away by their warmth, joy and love.  People greet you with a hug and kiss on the cheek even after just one meeting.  We are still in the process of trying some of the churches and when we go to a new one the pastor always introduces our team.  After that, everyone in the congregation comes and gives you a hug and kiss! It caught me off guard at first but I'm learning to appreciate that aspect of the culture.  

-It is so loud here! Car alarms go off at odd hours of the day and you can hear them from blocks away.  Venezuelan drivers also seem to like using their horns.  We take the bus to and from campus, church and the grocery store and the music on public transportation is always very loud. I'm learning to enjoy this also because it makes the trip fun.

-Venezuelan coffee is so good!

I have so much more to learn and see here and I can't wait to share it with you all!

Here are some pictures from my time so far:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Thank you SO much for all your prayers and support!! You are such a blessing in my life.

Oh, Oh here we go

Lately I feel like I'm a little kid again waiting for the first day of school.  But it's not just any first day of school. It's the first day of kindergarten.  I've thought about this day for so long, maybe even dressed up and walked my older sisters to the bus stop hoping that today they'll let me on the bus.  And now it's finally my turn. This big day comes with its doubts and questions: what will it be like? will I do well? what are the other kids like? are the snacks any good?   As my departure date (Monday, September 27th) approaches, I can't help but go back to those questions and get the same giddy, nervous feeling. What will life in Venezuela be like? What will doing full--time campus ministry be like? Will I be good at it? Will I like the food? These are just a few of the questions that run through my mind as I try to prepare for the year ahead. It is all kind of overwhelming. I wish that I could say I've got answers to all the questions and that I feel completely prepared. The only answer I have comes not from me but from the God of all comfort: "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23). Small steps, big moves, the familiar, the strange..wherever you are, whatever you do..we are not consumed.  Our God is faithful.  He does not run out of the love and mercy we so desperately need as we follow Him every day.  And he has not run out of it as I prepare to leave.  Each day, I can approach His throne to find help as I seek to love the Lord with all my heart, lead others to Christ, and learn a new culture.  I'm so excited and thankful as I take this verse to heart.  I don't feel so overwhelmed and the unanswered questions aren't such a big deal.  I will trust the Lord to answer them in His time.

Please pray:
-for safe travel on Monday to Venezuela
-for the Lord to finish up the remainder of my support (I'm currently at 95%!!)
-that I would daily rely on the Lord for comfort, strength and peace 
-for the Venezuelan students we will meet and share Christ's love with..that their hearts would be open


Praise God:
-that I got my visa!
-for His gracious provision..95%!!!


I'm so thankful for your partnership through prayer and support!! I am so blessed to have each one of you on my team!
Philippians 1:3-6           

We are family..get up everybody and sing!

I've been thinking a lot about family lately.  It's kind of becoming a fluid concept in my life..and I don't mind.  It is so much more beautiful and complex than I ever thought. 

I'm most struck by what the Bible says about family and how I've been experiencing family this summer as I am raising support to go to Venezuela.  

Let me give you a little background on my family.  My parents moved our family (I have two sisters) from Kenya  to America in 1992.  This meant leaving behind my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents..all of our family.  I grew up in a small nuclear family and knew of my extended family only through stories and pictures.  In 2007 I returned to Kenya for the first time.  It was a challenging, humbling, exciting and wonderful time.  One of the strangest experiences was being reunited with my extended family.  It was surreal.  For most people, seeing the whole family is something you do at least once a year..but for me it seemed once in a lifetime.  Because I have little to no memory of life before coming to America, (I was four years old when we moved here) it was like meeting them for the first time.  Imagine, if you can, meeting your grandmother at age 19!  What do you say? Where do you begin to catch up?  I didn't know what to say and I never quite figured out where to begin but that time was so special to me because even though we couldn't tell each other (the language barrier) I knew that I loved her and that she loved me.  We are family.

This summer as I've been preparing to leave home for Venezuela I've thought about how I'm going to miss my family.  I've thought about what it will be like spending the holidays and birthdays apart from them.  I think because of my background and wanting things to be different for my children I have this image of living close to home and my sisters and I raising our children together (when we have them, that is) ..dropping the kids off at Grandma's for the  afternoon while we go shopping.  Maybe I watch too many movies but I guess that's just to say that it looks different from what I imagined.  My older sister recently moved to Australia and my parents are talking about moving back to Kenya someday.  And I'm going to Venezuela..away from home and away from my family.  All of this gives me pause as I struggle to fit my plans for my family into this reality.  Then I'm reminded of Jesus's words in the Gospel of Mark: 'I tell you the truth,' Jesus replied. 'no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.'   What an incredible promise!!  I've seen this even before leaving home.  I have been blessed with an amazing team; they will be my coworkers, roommates and friends.  We'll celebrate holidays and birthdays together; share the highs and lows of life and ministry in a new culture.  They are God's provision for family in this next year.  And God hasn't stopped there! He has also blessed me with family through my ministry team.  I've received so much encouragement and support through this process. You all have opened your homes and your lives to me and allowed me to share mine with you.  You are also God's provision for family and I am so thankful.  In Christ, we are family.

"I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. "      -Philippians 1:3-6